city
calling
Where were you when you heard? Fragments of a collective memory

There are moments in one's life that will forever remain frozen in memory. Karachi panicked and froze simultaneously on December 27, 2007, and in the days to come. The news of Benazir Bhutto's death shocked the world; and the moment that the news was heard is one that every individual is bound to remember for a long time.

By Amina Baig

Mahpaikar Jawed, a housewife, watched over all the food she was preparing for a big dinner at her house. Her brother had just returned home after performing Hajj and she wanted to give him a gracious welcome back. A few minutes after six, her husband told her that Benazir Bhutto had died in a suicide attack. She didn't believe him. It wasn't till she sat down in front of the television that she realized her husband wasn't lying.

Apathy in tragic times
The days that followed Benazir Bhutto's assassination were made more upsetting by the manner in which people behaved during the mourning period. 

By Ayecha Ahmed
Benazir Bhutto's death shocked Pakistan and threw most of the country into depression. But instead of keeping calm the nation went wild. Karachi being the prime victim of violence had to suffer the most. Life in Karachi came to a halt when news of the assassination was confirmed. Violence was expected, but the level it went to was something the city had not seen in years.

hyderabad
blues
Coming back to life

The army came to Hyderabad to control the law and order situation, though it was a bit late. Now that incidents of violence are no longer a problem, it is pulling people back to their feet that is a challenge which must be met immediately...
By Adeel Pathan
Despite the fact that there have been large scale protests in the country to curb army intercession in Pakistani politics and administrative affairs, district governments looked to the army to control violent activities breaking out all over the country following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

Dialing 1257? No more, oh never more!
All those who have stocked Callmate calling cards hoping to use them someday should prepare to paste them in a scrapbook to pass on to future generations 

By Sabeen Jamil

"People swarm our offices daily to know when our service will resume but we tell them that only a fortune teller or PTCL authorities can answer that question," says Shujaat Ali Qarni, the Chairman of the company. 


The way we were
Death in the time of screen legends 

By Kaleem Omar

Ava Gardner, who died of pneumonia in Westminster, England on January 25, 1990 at the age of 67, was an Academy Award-nominated actress who is listed as one of the American Film Institute's greatest stars of all time. Arguably the most beautiful woman ever to grace the silver screen, she spent her last drink-ravaged years living anonymously in London. No adoring fans swarmed around her for her autograph; no paparazzi chased her; no restaurant maitre des fawned over her.


karachicharacter
Multi-tasking
successfully

By Saba Ahmed

Zara Hasnat is enthralled with all the excitement of a child as she watches a wedding ceremony take place before her. It is hard to believe that this 22-year-old juggles her marriage, household chores and university at the same time, all the while preparing for her first baby.




city
calling
Where were you when you heard? Fragments of a collective memory

Mahpaikar Jawed, a housewife, watched over all the food she was preparing for a big dinner at her house. Her brother had just returned home after performing Hajj and she wanted to give him a gracious welcome back. A few minutes after six, her husband told her that Benazir Bhutto had died in a suicide attack. She didn't believe him. It wasn't till she sat down in front of the television that she realized her husband wasn't lying.

Her first thoughts were of her children, who had not yet returned from work; and they stayed with her children till they got home, much later that night. Suffice to say, her dinner wasn't as happy an occasion as she had hoped it would be.

All the way across Karachi, Amir drove his rickshaw on a bumpy Gulistan-e-Jauhar road. "Out of no where, people started firing guns, throwing stones at cars and screaming," says Amir, "I didn't realize why this was happening till someone told me Benazir Bhutto had been assassinated."

There was no way Amir could get out of the area safely, so he parked his rickshaw in an apartment's building and stayed the night there. He couldn't leave the area till the next evening, when it became slightly safer to drive on the roads again.

In an almost poetic gesture, the lights of commercial areas went out as soon as the news spread. However, the reasons behind turning lights off was far more somber.

Anwar, who sells corn on a busy street near Uzma Arcade knew something was wrong the minute all the lights on the otherwise brightly lit street went out. "Seconds after the blackout, I heard men shouting for everyone to close down their shops and get out of there," says Anwar, "within minutes the whole area became chaotic as shopkeepers rushed to shut their businesses down and customers ran to their cars and homes."

"I was at home, sleeping," says Shaheryar Husain, a student visiting home from Australia.

"My mother who is in Hyderabad called me and told me Benazir had been killed. Initially I thought it was a joke; someone had told me she had died in the October 18 blast," recalls Shaheryar. "My first instinct was to run out to a nearby restaurant and buy food for myself for three days. When I got home, I couldn't stop crying for Benazir. My next-door neighbour actually knocked on the door and asked me if I was alright."

Sayd Noor, a gatekeeper, got off his duty hours and went to the barber's. As he waited his turn, he heard uproar outside. It was the same story all over Karachi; the faces were different, but the demands were the same. "Men with sticks and guns wanted everyone to shut down their shops," says Sayd Noor, "for people to go home and no one to be seen on the streets."

"I was driving down Khayaban-e-Shahbaz when my girlfriend's sister called her," says Omair, a student, "she told her Benazir had died and wanted her sister to get home, the roads weren't too bad then, but I could see people panicking as more and more cars piled up on the roads; everybody honking and trying to get out of there first."

For some, the news itself wasn't as shocking or painful as what they saw after. Minhaj was at Hub Chowk when his friends started calling him up with the news of Benazir Bhutto's death.

"I was working," says the young makeup artist, "but I believed the news right away and tried to get home on my motorcycle." Minhaj had to stop in Haji Camp for a while before he could go further on as there was "just too much chaos on the roads."

"I left for home later that night and got followed by four men, I escaped them somehow. What was really eerie were the rows and rows of burnt cars and objects on the silent roads," says Minhaj sadly.

Shocking and hurtful as the news was, one can say safely that two things bound Karachiites closer than ever on the night of December 27; fear for their loved ones and fear for their country.

Mahpaikar Jawed couldn't get through to any of her children as all mobile networks were constantly tied up and Shaheryar Husain says that he cried as much for the fear of civil war breaking out in Pakistan as he did for a leader he admired endlessly.

"It is true that Pakistanis have that warrior's spirit," says Shaheryar, "but I shudder when I think of what might happen next."

Anwar feels cheated, "there is a mother at home and then there is the woman who is mother to the entire country," he says, "we just lost that mother."

Pakistanis will not forget December 27 anytime soon. Those who witnessed this day shared immense grief at the loss of a leader, whether they admired or were wary of her. It is also the day that the destiny Pakistanis share as a nation took an unexpected turn. While this day may become a memory frozen in time, it has at the same time forced most to look ahead and become conscious of the stake they hold in the future of Pakistan.

 


Apathy in tragic times

Benazir Bhutto's death shocked Pakistan and threw most of the country into depression. But instead of keeping calm the nation went wild. Karachi being the prime victim of violence had to suffer the most. Life in Karachi came to a halt when news of the assassination was confirmed. Violence was expected, but the level it went to was something the city had not seen in years.

The situation was tragic, but looting shoe shops doesn't make much sense as an expression of grief.  Hundreds of cars were set on fire and shops were burnt or broken, painting Karachi in shades of hearbreak. The residents of the city had to suffer more. People weren't able to get out of their houses and if under dire circumstances one absolutely had, to besides being terrorized one found next to nothing in the markets as the entire city's business had come to a standstill.

My brother got injured in the riots and though he came home safely, we weren't able to get his wound checked anywhere. No clinic in the locality was open. Fortunately a neighbour, who happens to be a doctor, examined the wound. Although the head injury had bled profusely, it was no longer dangerous.

The doctor told my brother to still get a tetanus shot or it may get troublesome. We went out to hunt for any pharmacy that could give us tetanus vaccine. The empty roads did indicate that there won't be any place open, but we still tried our luck. Eventually we found a shop open. The store that never has customers on normal days had a huge queue outside it. The vaccine wasn't available. So we decided on going to the DHA Medical Center.

Thankfully the medical center was open and we were pretty sure we would get the vaccine. Apparently there was no doctor there. The person at the reception wasn't helpful at all. After explaining how my brother was injured and how every place was shut, we were expecting him to be sympathetic, but instead he laughed us off saying the medical center has limited supplies and caters to DHA employees only. It was strange, there we were ready to pay any price for the vaccine and he just wasn't relenting. As far as helping a fellow man was concerned, this receptionist had already gone out his way to offer a room to a sick woman and the rest of Karachi would just have to comfort itself with this act of generosity.

The violence following Benazir Bhutto's assassination brought tears to my family's eyes more than once. A cousin of mine, who was pregnant, had gone to pick her husband from a conference at Pearl Continental.  As riots broke out on the roads outside, the couple was forced to stay the night at the hotel. The colossal amount of cash she had to spend for the only empty suite wasn't the only thing she parted with that night. Sometime later that night she started feeling sick with pain.

There wasn't anywhere she could go, so she had to stay there till the next morning. As the pain she felt became unbearable, she forced her family to pick her up from the hotel and take her to the hospital, which is at the other end of the city. The doctors at the emergency ward informed her that she'd had a miscarriage.

One really can't blame doctors for not being on duty during the four days the city mourned. Nor can one blame pharmacies for being shut; it just wasn't safe to step out during those four days. However what one did expect were acts of kindness during shared hard times.

As the gentleman at the medical center proved though, expecting kindness not granted can cause bitterness much worse than what might have led to the catastrophic situation in the first place. And while ordinary citizens completely empathized with shops being shut and utilities not being available during the four days Karachi mourned, it is hard to extend anything but anger towards those who used the tragedy as an excuse to literally tear the city apart. 


hyderabad
blues
Coming back to life

Despite the fact that there have been large scale protests in the country to curb army intercession in Pakistani politics and administrative affairs, district governments looked to the army to control violent activities breaking out all over the country following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

The assassination of the former Prime Minister and Chairperson of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is still being mourned by people not only in Pakistan, but also abroad. However the madness displayed by some protestors in Hyderabad and parts of Sindh was less than commendable.

Hyderabad, being the political gateway of Sindh, reacts to every thing very quickly but the city responded rather ferociously post December 27.

Large-scale violence erupted  all over the city soon after the news of the assassination became public. Roads and streets were flooded with protestors carrying sticks. Initially these just included party loyalists, but they were later joined by miscreants who changed the atmosphere of mourning into that of senseless crime.

Vehicles on the road were torched indiscriminately. Cars parked in government and private office parking lots were pulled out and reduced to ashes.

A daily wage worker, Sohail, who works in a garage, tells Kolachi that he suffered badly due to closure of shops and markets for four days. As he could not earn his daily wages, Sohail spent days starving since he had no money to buy food with.

Initially Rangers and then the army were called in to Hyderabad to control the law and order situation. The decision was a belated one, as the police's inefficiency to deal with the situation was exposed through the media and the violent protests had taken their toll.

The presence of army troops brought an end to the violence and hardly any incident occurred after their intervention. Despite the situation having stabilized to a certain extent, citizens and other components of society including traders are still fearful.

Hyderabad saw a lot of damage before the army troops came in; offices, banks, factories, industries and petrol pumps were torched. Agitators also started looting goods stored in godowns especially in the wholesale grocery market.

The role of the district government was also questioned as members restricted themselves to statements. Despite pressure by the union councils, elected representatives didn't come out and pacify protestors to control and contain the situation.

Shaukat Ali Shah, a senior police official remarked at a press conference that, "an atomic explosion would have caused less damage," while referring to the way public and private property was damaged during the three days of violence.

A labourer, Aslam Khan, who earns his living selling dry fruits at Tower Market is now left with a torched cart and wonders how he will make up for his loss and continue with business in the future.

A district police official is of the opinion that the police were not prepared to deal with the situation of unrest as reorganization of forces takes time. The official said that 900 policemen had been deployed to protocol duty of caretaker Chief Minister of Sindh.

The police has started registering cases of arson against thousands of unknown people along with some PPP workers in Hyderabad. The army has started recovering looted goods which raises hope of traders gaining relief from the loss they suffered.

After the actual mourning period was over, life in Hyderabad remained paralyzed with rampant rumours of firing incidents. Fear gripped citizens who had still not recovered from the trauma of the mishaps they had witnessed.

An elderly citizen sharing their grief over the death of Ms Bhutto said, "this is a testing time for Pakistanis, I have not witnessed violence of such magnitude in decades."

Authorities should plan political, as well as administrative measures to contain the crisis without further aggravating it. Though involvement of the army at this point was essential, civil institutions should be developed to cope with such situations; especially in the cities.

As a commission has been formed by the government to assess damage caused by violent incidents in Sindh, care should be taken to reimburse those who suffered losses as soon as possible.

 


Dialing 1257? No more, oh never more!

"People swarm our offices daily to know when our service will resume but we tell them that only a fortune teller or PTCL authorities can answer that question," says Shujaat Ali Qarni, the Chairman of the company.

Callmate Telips Telecom Limited (CTTL) has provided various telecommunication services, payphones and prepaid calling cards in Pakistan since 2003 (and the TELIPS alone since 1991 before a merger with CallTel.) The company enjoyed a good reputation among its clientele with millions of people across Pakistan dialing 1257 daily to chat with loved ones on the phone, at home or abroad, until two months ago when all of a sudden the number became dysfunctional, with no prior warning or subsequent  explanation.

Since millions of rupees of  buyers and the distributors of the cards has been tied up in used and unused cards, the company has stopped supplying fresh cards to the market amid the rumors that it is on the verge of closure. The company's Chairman however denies the rumors saying, "we are coming to our offices daily and paying millions to our staff monthly, how can anyone claim we are closing down?"

Shujaat says that the cards are no longer functional because PTCL has closed down their connections for not paying off the dues of one billion rupees that the former management of the company was supposed to. "On the fifth day we took over the company  a few weeks back, PTCL closed down our connections for  non-payment of dues"

Shujaat points out that the former management was indebted to PTCL for years but their connections were never disconnected which is strange, "because PTCL disconnects landlines for nonpayment of even a few hundred rupees."

Shujaat laments that his management was never given the privileges given to the former one. "We have notified PTCL for this injustice. We have told them that we cannot pay dues immediately but we are ready to pay them off in installments along with our current bills."

Strenuous negotiations are underway between Callmate Telips and PTCL, the company that serves as an exchange for all calling cards in the country along with selling cards of its own.

"PTCL has relented a bit and has stated that they do not want a potential partner (Callmate) to fail."

Shujaat is hopeful of a consensus with PTCL for Callmate has earned PTCL up to 2.6 billion rupees in profits over the years and, "we are able to earn the profit of up to four billion rupees in the coming years."

Shujaat however admits that this would be possible only when the company starts working again. And when might that be? Shujaat is uncertain since both companies haven't reached an official consensus so far.

This uncertainty is overwhelming for Shahzad Aslam who sells calling cards at his small general store in bahadurabad. "I have Callmate cards worth twenty five thousand rupees right now and I am offered hundred such cards every day by my customers who want money in exchange for them." 

Shahzad is told by his friends everyday that the company is closing down soon but he seems mostly unconcerned, "I think I will get my cards exchanged by the company that takes over Callmate so I am not worried that my money will be wasted. It is just that my twenty five thousand rupees have been tied up for weeks."

However he is not that optimistic for customers, "I don't think they will be paid back if the company closes down." Shahzad adds that his customers are apprehensive they will never be compensated for the cards they bought that have expired by now. The company however assures its clientele that it will not let it incur any loss,  "not even of a single penny! We will extend the expiry period for every card when we will are functional again," states Shujaat. But when? Callmate Telips is at a loss for words. 


Ava Gardner, who died of pneumonia in Westminster, England on January 25, 1990 at the age of 67, was an Academy Award-nominated actress who is listed as one of the American Film Institute's greatest stars of all time. Arguably the most beautiful woman ever to grace the silver screen, she spent her last drink-ravaged years living anonymously in London. No adoring fans swarmed around her for her autograph; no paparazzi chased her; no restaurant maitre des fawned over her.

It wasn't like that in the mid-1950s, though, when she came to Pakistan to make "Bhowani Junction," a film based on John Masters' best selling novel of the same name. Most of the film's scenes were shot in Lahore, with the city's railway station doubling as the fictional Bhowani Junction. Near-riots broke out wherever Gardner went in Pakistan, with people shoving and jostling to catch a glimpse of her. On her way to Lahore, she stopped for a few days in Karachi, where the police had to throw a cordon around her hotel to prevent frenzied crowds from mobbing her.

During filming in Lahore, Gardner and her co-star Stewart Granger were guests one evening at the Punjab Club bar. At one point during the evening, the somewhat inebriated Granger was rude to Gardner. Upon which, a tough young Pakistan army captain who was sitting at the bar hauled off and clobbered Granger. Down went the actor, to applause from the other members. "The wretched man was being rude to Miss Gardner. We can't have that," said the indignant army captain.

In several of the movie's scenes, Gardner - who played Victoria, the daughter of an Anglo-Indian railway-engine driver - wore a sari. I don't think any woman has ever looked as stunningly beautiful in a sari as Ava Gardner.

Time gets us all in the end. But screen goddesses like Ava Gardner are not supposed to die anonymous deaths, not if there is any justice in the world. If they must die, and I suppose they must, they should go out in a blaze of glory to the sound of trumpets, surrounded by legions of weeping fans threatening to throw themselves off the top of the tallest nearby building.

Ava Gardner was born on December 24, 1922 in the small farming community of Brogden, North Carolina, the youngest of seven children of poor cotton and tobacco farmers. Her mother, Molly, was a Baptist of Scots-Irish descent. Her father, Jonas Bailey Gardner, was a Catholic of Irish American and Tuscarora Red Indian descent. It was probably from her father that she inherited the classic high cheekbones that added to her beauty.

While the children were still young, the Gardners lost their property, forcing Jonas Gardner to work in a sawmill and Molly to begin working as a cook and housekeeper at a dormitory for teachers at the nearby Brogden School. The Great Depression was on and times were hard, but the family somehow managed to make ends meet.

When Ava was 13, the family decided to try their luck in a bigger town, Newport News, Virginia, where Molly Gardner found work managing a boardinghouse for the city's many ship workers. That job did not last long and the family moved to the Rock Ridge suburb of Wilson, North Carolina, where Molly Gardner ran another boardinghouse. Gardner's father died of bronchitis in 1935.

Ava and some of her siblings attended high school in Rock Ridge and she graduated from there in 1939. She then attended secretarial classes at Atlantic Christian College in Wilson for about a year.

The story about how she got into films is the stuff of legend. According to her biographers, Gardner, who by the age of eighteen had become a stunning, green-eyed brunette, was visiting her older sister Beatrice in New York in 1941 when Beatrice's husband Larry Tarr, a professional photographer, offered to take her portrait. He liked the results (he would have been mad not to have liked them) and displayed the final product in the front window of his Fifth Avenue studio. The picture was spotted by an MGM talent scout.

Shortly after, Ava, who at the time was still a student at the Atlantic Christian College in Wilson, traveled to New York to be interviewed by MGM's New York office. She was offered a standard film contract by MGM, and Ava left college for Hollywood in 1941.

Soon after her arrival in Los Angeles, Gardner met actor Mickey Rooney, who was also under contract to MGM. He was one of the studio's biggest stars, having played the title role of a lovable teenager in several very popular "Andy Hardy" films. They got married on January 10, 1942 in Ballard, California.

Gardner made more than a dozen movies between 1941 and 1945, but it wasn't until she starred in "The Killers" opposite Burt Lancaster in 1946, that she became known as a movie star and sex symbol. Rooney and Gardner divorced in 1943, mainly because Rooney wouldn't give up his partying ways. Ava, who had a ready wit, once characterised their marriage as "Love Finds Andy Hardy."

Her second marriage was to clarinetist and jazz bandleader Artie Shaw. The marriage only lasted a year, from 1945 to 1946, and was even more disastrous than the first. It was during this marriage that Gardner began to drink and take refuge in therapy.

Her third and last marriage was to singer and actor Frank Sinatra from 1951 to 1957. Sinatra left his wife, Nancy, for Ava and their subsequent marriage made headlines. Sinatra was savaged by Hollywood gossip columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons for leaving his "good wife" for this exotic femme fatale.

Sinatra's career suffered, while Ava's prospered - the headlines only reinforced her sexy screen siren image. The marriage to Sinatra was stormy. But Gardner used her considerable clout to get Sinatra cast in his Best Supporting Actor Oscar-winning role of Private Maggio in "From Here to Eternity" (1953), the movie version of American author James Jones' best selling novel of the same name. That role revitalised Sinatra's acting and singing careers, which had fallen into the doldrums by the early 1950s. Gardner and Sinatra remained good friends for the rest of her life. 

In 1954, Ava Gardner starred in the film "The Barefoot Contessa." Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and co-starring Humphrey Bogart, Edmund O'Brien, Maurice Goring and Rossano Brazzi, the film was a cynical and bizarre tale about a gaggle of Hollywood vultures on a sojourn in Europe.

When the film opened in London's West End in the summer of 1955, the movie's posters billed Gardner as "the most beautiful animal in the world." That description might be considered sexist today, but it certainly got the bit about Gardner's beauty right. She truly was a very beautiful woman. But she was also something else: a good actress.

In the 1953 film "Mogambo," set in East Africa, she turned in a finely judged performance as a jaded lady with a past who dallied with the great white hunter, played by Clark Gable. Her rival for Gable's affections was Grace Kelly, no mean slouch herself in the looks department. Ava was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for "Mogambo," but lost out to Audrey Hepburn in the film "Roman Holiday."

Many thought Gardner's greatest performance was as smalltime hotel owner Maxine Faulk in "The Night of the Iguana" (1964), co-starring Richard Burton and Deborah Kerr, for which Gardner, surprisingly, was not nominated.

Although Gardner's marriage to Sinatra only lasted six years, he never really got over her. Years later he would say that she was the only woman he ever truly loved.

After she divorced Sinatra in 1957, Ava headed for Spain where her friendship with Nobel Prize-winning writer Ernest Hemingway led to her becoming a fan of bullfighting and bullfighters. She went through one short-lived affair after another, leaving a trail of devastated suitors in her wake.

In the early 1960s, she took up with the famous Spanish bullfighter Luis Dominguin, following him to Mexico when he retired from the bullring and took up residence in Acapulco. A Life magazine reporter once asked Dominguin how he spent his time now that he had retired. "I do nothing all day and rest afterwards," the former matador quipped, with a nod in Ava's direction.

But she had her own retort ready. "Luis is more than magnificent - he's mediocre," she said. No, they don't make them like Ava Gardner anymore.


Zara Hasnat is enthralled with all the excitement of a child as she watches a wedding ceremony take place before her. It is hard to believe that this 22-year-old juggles her marriage, household chores and university at the same time, all the while preparing for her first baby.

Married at the age of 19, Zara has lived in Karachi all her life and considers herself to be a true Karachiite.

Zara now is in the process of completing her BBA from one of the renowned universities of Karachi. In addition to that she also manages her house and looks after her extended family.

 

Kolachi: How do you compare living in Karachi to the rest of the cities in Pakistan?

Zara: I have been to Islamabad and in comparison, this city is far better. Karachi is anything but dead. It is  entertaining to live in a metropolis where people from various ethnicities live and interact everyday.

Kolachi: How do you spend your leisure time?

Zara: Mostly shopping and dining out.

Kolachi: What is one thing you abhor about Karachi?

Zara: Late weddings. As it is, weddings are not something I look forward to and when they stretch beyond the invitation time it just gets infuriating.

Kolachi: What are the things that you truly admire about Karachi?

Zara: The liveliness of this city. It is the most happening city of Pakistan. Despite all the pollution and traffic jams, the best aspect of Karachi is that the city never sleeps.The streets are full of people engaged in one thing or another.

Kolachi: How do you balance studies and family?

Zara: It is not easy! To strike a balance is extremely difficult but not impossible. The support I get from my husband is commendable. Without his backing things wouldn't have been so smooth. I have to sacrifice   sleep so I can provide quality time to both. I think setting my priorities straight makes it more convenient for me to manage studies and family simultaneously.

Kolachi: What kind of obstacles do you face in keeping up with your studies?

Zara: Like other students I just don't have to focus on my studies but I have to manage my house too. Although I am blessed with great in-laws who don't burden me with a lot of work, I have more responsibilities. At times I  have to cook or entertain guests at the cost of studying for an exam.

Kolachi: What motivates you to keep going?

Zara: It has to be my husband. There are times when I just want to leave it but then my husband's encouragement impels me to complete my degree. Then there is university life. I look forward to meeting my friends and attending lectures on campus. Having a life outside home is a reason.

Kolachi: Do you think you want your child to be brought up in Karachi?

Zara: Not really. Witnessing recent events, I would not want my child to grow up here. The riots, arson and the assassination has not only disturbed grownups but has negatively influenced the minds of the young ones. If given a choice I would definitely opt for bringing up my child somewhere safer.

Kolachi: What changes would you want to see in Karachi?

Zara: I would want the city to be peaceful. Without water-shortage and loadshedding. In short, eliminate those factors that create daily tensions.

Kolachi: What kind of contribution would you like to make for the betterment of Karachi?

Zara: The biggest contribution is by being a good citizen, who makes a conscious effort to keep the city clean. I am also interested in social work which benefits Karachi at large.

Kolachi: Where do you see Karachi 10 years down the road?

Zara: Being aware of the affairs of the city and country, I can conclude that Karachi is one city which is highly affected at the moment. Be it economically or socially, the impact on Karachi is all-encompassing. In 10 years' time if we gain political stability, there is nothing that can stop the city from progressing.

 

Zara is one of the growing number of young girls who have complied with tradition and are married and looking after their family while completing their education at the same time. It is said that an educated mother can shape an entire civilization and at a time where Pakistan is at the brink of change, it seems imperative that our coming generations be aware, educated and mindful of their values.

Women like Zara work hard to reach their goals and keep their families happy; qualities that will surely lend more to Karachi's character.

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